The news that the Trump Administration hired a former party planner to oversee HUD's New York and New Jersey office went viral in June. The hire has already had an effect on affordable housing policy in Westchester County, New York.
"Westchester County has finally met one of the most contentious requirements in its ongoing affordable housing agreement with the federal government," reports Mark Lungariello.
To make the breakthrough possible, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development "has accepted a county analysis of how local zoning codes can create barriers to fair-housing choices," after rejecting ten previous submissions of similar analysis. "The analysis didn’t find any exclusionary zoning in the county," according to Lungariello.
Lungariello also provides a bit of context for Westchester County's sudden change of favor with HUD, noting that the "decision comes weeks after a new administrator for HUD’s New York and New Jersey office was named." That is, "Westchester resident Lynne Patton, a former event planner and vice president of the Eric Trump Foundation, was named administrator in late June — just two months after HUD’s last rejection of the county’s analysis of impediments, or AI."
The article includes more of the background on the lawsuits and fair housing controversies that got Westchester County in hot water with the federal government prior to the Trump Administration coming to power.
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Journal of the American Planning Association